Sunday, 28 November 2010

SOS Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato

I don’t cook with sweet potato as often as I should. It still seems a bit exotic to me and I tend to use our common pumpkin much more. Fortunately other bloggers love it, especially my northern American friends, and give me the encouragement I need with the fluro orange vegetable.

I made this a few weeks ago using quinoa, lentils and cauliflower as the main ingredients in the filling. I also threw in quite a few leftovers so this recipe is as much suggestion as instruction. I think I needed a bit more cooking time for the filling and a bigger saucepan but it is a very good work in progress.

I definitely recommend it to you. When I tasted the filling after it had cooled I thought it tasted just like mince meat but better. However then I returned to reality and remembered it is probably about 20 years since I had mince meat and how would I know what it tastes like any more. I also found the sweet potato far too sweet for my tastes and found it much more palatable with some seasoning. That said, sweet potato is great for the mash. It means less carbs, if that concerns you, and keeps better than regular potato mash, which is just as well given that this kept us going a few nights!

* If I didn’t have leftovers I would probably use other flavourings such as more garlic, herbs, mustard, etc.Mash:

2 medium potatoes

4 medium sweet potatoes (about 800g)

slurp of milk knob of butter

1 dessertspoon of nutritional yeast flakes

generous shake of smoked paprika

½ tsp salt

lots of black pepper

Heat oil in a large saucepan or stockpot. Cook onion, carrots and celery for about 15 minutes or until soft (I did 15 minutes but would do more next time because my celery was still a bit toothsome).

Meanwhile cook quinoa in boiling water for about 20 minutes or until soft. When cooked, drain and set aside.

Add the cauliflower to the vegetables and cook for about 10 minutes. (Next time I would cook this a bit more as it could have been softer in the final dish.)

Add cooked quinoa, peas, water, tomatoes, smoked paprika, lentils, promite and leftovers (or additional flavouring). Cook for at least 15 minutes and set aside until the mash is ready. The cauliflower and celery should be soft when you finish cooking and set this aside.

While the cauliflower and quinoa mixture is cooking, prepare the mash. Peel and chop the potatoes and sweet potatoes. Place in a medium saucepan of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until soft. Drain and mash with remaining ingredients.

To assemble, spread cauliflower and quinoa mixture into rectangle casserole dish. Spread mash over filling and use a fork to fluff up so the edges will get crispy. Bake at 200 C for 40 minutes. Ideally the topping should be a little crispy and golden brown.

16 comments:

Funny, I grew up eating sweet potato about 5 nights a week as mum always, always roasts it (and not pumpkin) with potatoes. And I've often used it as a topping for shepherd's pie! So I'm the opposite to you - pumpkin in the novelty for me!

thanks hannah - we are the opposite when it comes to sweet potato and pumpkin - I always mean to roast it and forget - and I don't remember having sweet potato as a child (though my mum will probably correct me on that)

This looks fabulous! Funny, the reason I love sweet potato so much is precisely because it IS so sweet! But it goes well with savory seasonings, too. . . this is such a great submission to the SOS this month. Thanks so much! :)

Actually sweet potato doesn't have any fewer carbs than potato and may even have slightly more (depends on the type of both), but they're slightly "slower" carbs and thus better for your blood sugar. Some people make low-carb Shepherd's pie with mashed cauliflower, generally a popular low-carb mashed potato substitute.

I wonder what a combination of mashed sweet potato _and_ mashed cauliflower would be like. :-> I've never had Shepherd's pie anyway since it's not eaten where I live, but I've been supposed to make a vegan version for ages.

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Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.